On April 15, H’art Centre and the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston announced a new partnership to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (15 April 1972) between Canada and the US. This partnership is an opportunity for the Museum to increase access to its programs through a relationship with H’art artist participants while collaboratively building community art initiatives through the ‘Our Great Lakes’ project. This multi-program project invites the community to connect with our local waterways by engaging in arts-based workshops, exhibits, and performances.
From June to December, our respective organizations will be delivering a number of exciting initiatives that engage and empower as many individuals as possible to embrace the Great Lakes as a vital freshwater resource, while providing opportunities for accessible arts-based heritage programs and cross-cultural conversations.
At the Museum, this includes:
- “Our Great Lakes” weekly educational art-based workshops with H’art Centre artist participants and the public for 10-weeks from June to September.
- “Our Great Lakes” Public Art Installation at the Museum from October to December featuring the work of H’artists from the summer workshops.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to increase access to museum programs and for individuals of all backgrounds to come together to celebrate and advocate for the protection of the largest interconnected body of freshwater in the world. Following a short series of art programs last summer, we are delighted to be working with H’art to facilitate inter-generational conversations about our shared heritage and the environment”, said Dr. Michelle Clarabut, Programs and Communications Manager at the Marine Museum. More details on these programs and information on how you can register will be available here.
At H’art, program and event initiatives include:
- “Moving Shoreline”, Artist Participant workshops that will result in moveable wooden sculptures from June to August. These sculptures will contribute to the Museum’s art installation and H’art’s roving dance production, “Water”.
- “Canadians Connecting: Freshwater”, H’artist visual art workshops with outreach to 5-10 inclusive arts studios across Canada. These workshops will culminate in a national exhibit at The Mix in October.
“At H’art, we know that when we connect to a collective purpose and apply the power of the arts to it, we grow and strengthen our community,” said Executive Director Katherine Porter. “One of the most important and essential elements in our community is water, we can’t live without it. So, this creative season, we are excited to partner with the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston to find creative ways to get people to become more aware of their relationship with the water, their connection to the waterways, and to think about how we must act to protect such a vital shared community resource.” More details about the events and workshops will be available here.
The Marine Museum would like to thank the Community Foundation of Kingston and the Area for granting $12,000 in support of the ‘Our Great Lakes: Celebrating our freshwater resource’ project. These funds will allow the Museum to deliver workshops to H’art artist participants and the public, and install a large-scale Great Lakes diorama at the Museum. H’art Centre would like to thank Bill & Nancy Gray and the Ontario Arts Council for supporting the workshops and national exhibit and the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the City of Kingston’s Arts Fund for their ongoing support.